The Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application level protocol for transferring resources across the Internet, e.g., a network data object or server, where the resource is specified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) is a simple data format that is used to create hypertext documents that are supported by the HTTP protocol. The HTTP protocol is described in “Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) version 1.1, RFC 2616 (June 1999),” available through the Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF's) website. These standards are commonly relied upon in technology of the World Wide Web (WWW) on the Internet. Other application level Internet protocols include File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), TELNET, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), Post Office Protocol (POP), and streaming media.
A traffic manager is a network device that manages network traffic. Some traffic managers manage the flow of network traffic between network devices. Some traffic managers control the flow of data packets to and from an array of application servers. A traffic manager can manage and distributes Internet, intranet or other user requests across redundant arrays of network servers, regardless of the platform type. Traffic managers can support a wide variety of network applications such as web browsing, e-mail, telephony, streaming multimedia and other network protocol traffic. The BIG-IP® family of traffic managers, by F5 Networks of Seattle, Wash., are examples of traffic managers.